The InGen Conspiracy: Chaos Delayed
by Soul Reaver
Summary: What if Jurassic Park had opened on schedule with no difficulties? The chaos that befell Isla Nublar in the movie is merely delayed a decade or so.
1. Chaos Delayed

The InGen Conspiracy

Disclaimer: I don't own Jurassic Park or the Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego franchises. The characters of Harold Scammon, Kathleen Brewer, and Danny Castaldi are my creation.

* * *

San Francisco: 

"Well nothing flagged up positive from the InGen investigation." Danny Castaldi, a twetny-five year old ACME detective, said as he jogged alongside his partner, Harold Scammon.

"What do you expect, InGen is notoriously paranoid when it comes to investigations of any sort." Scammon replied, as he jogged along. He was a lean, compact fellow of thirty-two who always kept himself in good physical condition.

"What I'm getting paranoid about is all this extra training you've been doing." Danny replied, "Where does all this energy come from?"

"From my days with the 82nd Airborne Division." Scammon replied, "We always believed in being fit."

"You'd think injury means slow down, buddy." Danny replied.

"C'mon man, Airborne Easy. You said you wanted to 'work on cardio'." Scammon replied to the short, stocky Italian-American running beside him.

"I said work on cardio, not kill me." Danny protested as they ran along through Golden Gate Park, "You're in the National Guard now, not the 82nd Airborne..."

"But I'm still a sniper." Scammon replied, with a grin.

"Don't you think you're a little old to be lugging a heavy rucksack around, sneaking through the woods and shooting people for a living?" Danny asked.

"Not really." Scammon replied, "Hell I'm thirty-two. I'll consider slowing down on my death bed."

"Oh great." Danny groaned as they ran along.

"C'mon, weren't you in the Army?" Scammon asked.

"Yeah, I was in the MPs until I got picked up for ACME." Danny replied, "I wasn't a paratrooper."

Just then Scammon's cell phone rang and he stopped running to answer it. After listening for a few seconds he hung up the phone.

"Guess we're gonna have to cut this one short, I'm afraid." Scammon replied.

"Saved by the bell." Danny quipped.

* * *

ACME HQ 

A few minutes later the two men had showered and changed in the locker room before reporting to the briefing room. "Nice jacket." Scammon remarked, indicating Danny's stylish black leather jacket.

"About time you two showed up." a female voice sounded.

Both men turned to see a young woman, about twenty-three years old, with short brown hair, blue eyes, a slim, pleasant figure and a rather lovely smile. Kathleen Brewer, or Kate as she liked to be called, was the third member of their team in the ACME Undercover Investigation Unit.

"We're not late are we?" Scammon challenged.

"No, you guys are on time." Kate replied.

"So no need to complain, right?" Scammon asked.

"Actually, you are the senior detective Hal." Kate replied, with a mischievous grin that made her seem almost Pixie-like, "You should be on time."

"You wound me fair lady." Scammon replied.

"You wound me fair lady." Scammon replied. _Damn it, Hal, what is it about this woman...?_

"Hal, this isn't Elizabethan England." Kate remarks, "Try to get with the program and talk like everyone else will you."

Her smile told Hal she was kidding and Hal was reluctant to give the disapproving scowl he might have given to an uppity junior partner. He wasn't sure it was warranted in this case even, but he hoped whatever was bugging him about her would resolve itself fast.

The three of them entered the main conference room and then a short, stocky bald fellow appeared. Their boss, Chief Inspector Louis 'Papa Louie' Trent spoke, "Open the files on the table. This is your newest assignment."

As the three detectives complied the face of an old man with snow white hair and beard, a short stature and a certain merriment about him was visible. Scammon almost laughed, the man reminded him of Santa Claus for God's sake.

"This is John Hammond, the CEO of the InGen Corporation in Palo Alto, California." Trent began, "If you don't know, his attraction Jurassic Park opened eleven years ago, in 1993."

"We're investigating him?" Danny asked.

"No, Mr. Castaldi, you aren't. Turn the page." Trent replied.

On the next page was a picture of a bespectacled fellow in a business suit with close cropped brown hair and pale blue eyes was visible.

"That's his nephew, Peter Ludlow." Trent replied, "He's under suspicion over an accident that occured two weeks ago, when John Hammond was in Scotland for his father's funeral."

"Details?" Scammon asked.

"Well two workers were killed in a construction accident while building an extension to an unnamed exhibit." Trent replied, "That's all our source in InGen is willing to disclose."

"Who's our source?" Kate asked.

"He's a veternarian named Dr. Harding." Trent replied, "That's where you come in, Kate. You've got a degree in veternary medicine and are a practicing vet so you're a natural for this one. Scammon, you and Castaldi are going in as backup."

"Cover stories?" Hal asked.

"Well, Miss Brewer's is obvious. She'll be with a tour group of five people who are applying to become staff veternarians at Jurassic Park. Mr. Scammon, you and Mr. Castaldi will be posing as a tourist and as a park employee respectively. You'll find all your neccessary documents and papers in the next room." Trent replied, "Good luck."

"Thanks Chief." Hal replied.

* * *

Kate walked into her apartment, the one she shared with her fiance, Scott Patterson. He happened to be about an hour earlier than usual, sitting back on the sofa with a beer in his hand, his tie and jacket removed and his shirt's top two buttons unbuttoned. 

"Hi honey." Kate said.

Scott smiled at her, "Hi yourself, beautiful. I got off work early today. And I just got three off days I've been dying to use all this month right after."

He sidled up to her, nuzzling her neck, "I wonder what shall we do with all my time off?"

Kate smiled, "I can think of a few things I'd love to do right now."

"Hmm, enlighten me?" Scott said.

"But, I have to pack." Kate replied.

"You're on another case?" Scott asked.

"Yeah." Kate replied, "I'm sorry. I've gotta make the seven o'clock flight tonight. Hal's probably waiting downstairs."

"I'm jealous of your boss." Scott said jokingly, "Sometimes it seems like he gets to spend way more time with you than I do."

Kate headed into the bedroom to grab a bag and began putting itmes into it. "You're avoiding the discussion..." Scott warned.

"No, merely moving it." Kate replied as she put some spare clothes, toiletries and a couple other items. She almost closed the bag when she remembered something. She didn't want to hop off the plane in Costa Rica and have to go bra shopping, so she grabbed a couple spare bras and tossed them into her bag.

"Have a safe trip honey." Scott said. Inwardly he was pretty upset. Kate's job was one that meant she would be traveling all over the place almost all the time. ACME detectives were a sharp bunch of people surely, and Kate was happy with her job but he wished she would go on to a safer job before they started a family. He walked with Kate out to a waiting desert tan 1999 Land Rover.

* * *

"Damn Scott's a lucky man." Scammon said under his breath. 

"What was that?" Danny said, looking up from his US News article on InGen.

"Nothing Danny, drop it." Scammon replied.

"Oh c'mon, it's perfectly natural to admit..." Danny began.

"Drop it." Scammon replied.

"Still, if she were single..." Danny replied.

"Danny, what part of 'drop it' do you not understand." Scammon began, in the tone of voice that a sergeant would use to address an unruly private.

"Jeez, you don't have to be such a grouch." Danny replied.

"Did I miss something?" Kate said, as she put her back into the car after giving Scott a quick kiss.

"No, you didn't." Scammon replied.

"Just that our resident sniper's in a bit of a mood." Danny replied.

"Age does that to you, doesn't it." Kate joked, with that smile you just couldn't get mad at.

Scammon rolled his eyes and started the engine. "Wow, this Dr. Malcolm fellow seems adamant to prove that Jurassic Park will fail." Danny said.

"Oh yeah, he's that mathematician from Berkeley who Ludlow's trying to sue for selling 'false stories'." Kate said, "It was on ABC News last night."

"He's supposedly traveling down to Isla Nublar to give a talk on this, right?" Scammon asked.

"That's what the broadcast said. Either way, we should talk to him." Kate began.

"He may have a nugget or two of information we could find useful." Scammon replied. Little did he know how right he probably was...

* * *

TBC (I'll get more into Jurassic Park later on, but I wanted to introduce my originals for now.) 


	2. One

One

Disclaimer: Same as before...

* * *

Kuwait, 1991:

"Target 775 meters away..." the spotter whisperred, "Two clicks right, wind at 4.5 kts."

The target was young, barely older than the man stalking him. He was an Iraqi artillery spotter that had been calling in rounds earlier on US forces. His face was covered with barely a stubble of beard since puberty was barely past.

"Wind's at half value." Scammon replied. The target area was small, the aperture of a bunker and couldn't be seen from the air. But the sniper knew that he could hit the target.

He placed the crosshairs on target, centering the middle of the man's face on the Mil-dot reticle. Christ, the man was the same age as a college kid for goodness' sake. It was the eyes that first jumped out at him. They were a deep shade of brown and were the haunted eyes of a man who had hunkered down in his position while Coalition warplanes bombed everything in sight.

He was God, with supreme domain over the life and death of the man in the bunker. He was over half a kilometer from his target, but he was still closer to him than any living man.

"Take the shot, man." the spotter urged.

The sniper breathed in, like he'd been trained to do. He applied a steady pressure on the trigger, not anticipating the recoil. He kept tightening as he exhaled and the M24 SWS bucked in his hands, sending a 173 grain 7.62 mm round downrange into the head of his target. Through his optics, the sniper saw blood splatter out of the back of his target's head.

* * *

Flight 78, 2004:

Hal Scammon jerked awake from his nap. For a brief time he was nineteen years old. This was the first time he had ever killed a man. His flashback apparently disturbed the lean, bald man sitting beside him. They turned and faced each other and in the cold, ice blue eyes of the occupant of the other seat, he recognized a fellow hunter.

"Sorry." Hal said.

A moment after, a recognition of a different sort flashed through Hal's mind. The man sitting next to him was Roland Tembo, a renowned big game hunter who had taught a few snipers from the 82nd Airborne Division the basics of shooting with .300 Magnum caliber weapons.

"Do you hunt?" Roland asked.

"Yes." Hal replied.

"Really, what do you hunt?" Roland replied.

"Only dangerous quarry." Hal replied.

"As do I." Roland replied, "But sadly that quarry no longer exists for me anymore. Hunting no longer is of any sport, merely execution. Myself and Ajay have hunted all things. Lions on the veldt, tigers in India, jaguars in Brazil, name it. My trophy room is lined with the heads of dangerous animals who've found out the hard way that I'm more dangerous."

"My quarry is forever the most dangerous quarry." Hal replied, "Ever inventive, ever adapting, always lethal and dangerous."

"Certainly there is no hunting like the hunting of man and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never really care for anything else thereafter." Roland replied.

"Ernest Hemingway." Scammon replied.

"The sniper, one breed of hunter I've worked with before." Roland Tembo said, "I'll leave you to your reading then."

"Thank you." Scammon replied.

They say that for a sniper the sight pictures of those he has killed never go away. But for a sniper only one sight picture really matters. The first. Whatever innocence Harold Scammon had that day was forever lost in the deserts of Kuwait. Another three in Somalia followed, one in the Balkans. There were also two, classified ones, that he'd gained in South America. He'd also attained another eight in Iraq in 2003 when his National Guard unit had been called up and attached to the 101st Airborne. Fourteen men had died in his sights since Desert Storm. For a brief time, Hal Scammon was nineteen years old again, and had killed a man for the first time.

* * *

Kate shifted her slim frame in the chair she sat in. Beside her sat a man in his forties, with brown hair and wearing a red flannel shirt and blue jeans. A slender blonde woman in her early thirties sat beside them and judging by the way they spoke they had to be married or at least seeing one another.

It jumped up and bit her just then, she recognized the man at least. He was Doctor Alan Grant, the scientist who approved Jurassic Park back in 1993. She didn't want to be obtrusive and went back into her copy of Diseases of Dinosauria, by Dr. James Harding.

"Is that the latest edition?" Alan Grant asked.

Kate smiled politely, "Yes it is."

"I gather you're a vet." Grant replied.

"I am." Kate replied, "I'm actually interviewing for one of the veterinary positions on the island. It's supposedly on the cutting edge of the field."

"I've actually met Dr. Harding once, when he was treating a sick triceratops." the blonde replied, "It was due to their injestion of West Indian lilac berries."

"From swallowing gizzard stones, right?" Kate asked, at the blonde woman's quizzical look she added, "It's in the start of the book. You must be Dr. Sattler."

"It's Dr. Sattler-Grant, actually." Ellie replied, "But I use my maiden name at work to avoid confusion among the volunteers."

"It's weird how dinosaurs are a blend of crocdile, bird, and other species on this planet." Kate replied, "But my curiousity was piqued and I applied for the job. They liked my resume and my degree in toxicology especially."

"Some dinosaur species actually were a lot closer to birds, especially velociraptors." Alan replied, "Now I've proven it. They move in a bird-like manner, lightly bobbing their heads when they walk."

"But they apparently have Jacobson's organs or something similar." Kate replied, "I saw a media clip where one was flicking it's tongue around to find a hidden piece of meat."

"They reinforced the velociraptor area. They've turned it into a self contained fortress called The Raptor Containment Area." Ellie said.

"Actually," Kate said, "I guess I'm more interested in working with the maiasaurs more than anything else."

"Why?" Alan asked.

"I guess the 'good mother lizard' sounds appealing to me." Kate smiled, "When I was at the zoo one of my colleagues who worked in Africa for over a decade told me about hyenas having wonderful maternal instincts. Its actually fascinating, really, to know that animals other than humans have parental instincts of sorts."

* * *

"Tell me again how chaos works?" Danny asked the enigmatic man in black at his side.

"It deals with unpredictability in a complex system." Ian Malcolm said, "Something engineers, such as yourself, are unprepared to deal with."

For almost the entire flight, after noticing the InGen employee promotional literature Danny had been reading, this guy had been rambling on about chaos theory. Non-linear dynamics it was called and it was the one course Danny had failed in college.

"Really, and how are we unprepared? We now have computers that can predict the tiniest variation in any model." Danny replied.

"The Malcolm Effect always makes itself manifest when least expected." Malcolm replied.

"Didn't you say that ten years ago, but Jurassic Park still opened." Danny replied, "And receives thousands of visitors yearly without incident."

"A recipe for disaster, if you ask me." Malcolm said, "Even the best chaotician is wrong from time to time. I was expecting the Malcolm Effect to manifest itself early on. But now that the park is open, the expected teething troubles have passed, we now assume it can never occur. And that, my dear Mr. Castaldi is when it is most likely to do so."

"You've shown me computer models, pages on pages of calculations, statistical predictions and the like. It seems like to think that at any given point the systems controlling Jurassic Park will fail and cause a catastrophe that will cost thousands of lives."

"I don't think, I know." Malcolm replied.

Annoyed, Danny leafed through the promotional materials he had been given as an InGen employee. But inwardly he felt uneasy. What if Dr. Malcolm had been right all these years?

* * *

TBC 


End file.
